IN PHOTOS: The magnificent Nobel awards ceremonies

IN PHOTOS: The magnificent Nobel awards ceremonies

Sweden held its lavish annual Nobel awards ceremony on Tuesday attended by laureates and royals, but their ranks were depleted when many VIPs flocked to the memorial for anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela in South Africa.

More than 1,300 guests at the banquet attended the Nobel dinner in Stockholm City Hall to dine, chat and listen to laureates including Britain's Peter Higgs and Francois Englert of Belgium, who won the Nobel Prize for physics -- speak at Sweden's most prestigious social event.

Meanwhile, the global chemicals weapons watchdog Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons accepted the Nobel Peace Prize 2013 in Oslo, Norway on Tuesday, where it was praised for its role during the Syrian crisis.

IN PHOTOS: The magnificent Nobel awards ceremonies

Nobel Peace Prize committee head Thorbjoern Jagland (L) applauds Ahmet Uzumcu, director general of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, during the Nobel Peace Prize awards ceremony at the City Hall in Oslo.

The Hague-based global chemical weapons watchdog working to eliminate chemical arms stockpiles around the battlefields of Syria's civil war won the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize in October.

IN PHOTOS: The magnificent Nobel awards ceremonies

Jenny Munro, daughter of Canadian author Alice Munro, collects the Nobel Prize in Literature on behalf of her mother, from Sweden's King Carl Gustaf during the 2013 Nobel Prize award ceremony in Stockholm.